COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Florida Murder Suspect Might Have Fled To Bombay

R S Shankar in Florida

After extensive interviews with friends, professors and family members of Deepa Agarwal, the 20-year-old student whose body was discovered in her closet early this week, Orange County police suspect that her cousin Kamlesh Agarwal, 21, might have killed her.

He had shared an apartment with Deepa, a finance student at the University of Central Florida. A top academic achiever, she was preparing to start her master's program. The police now suspect that he was jealous that Deepa had male friends. Kamlesh, a computer science student at UCF, was also angry that she stayed out at night frequently

An international alert has not yet gone out for Kamlesh Agarwal, but the police in Orlando are in touch with their counterparts in Bombay to find out if he might have taken refuge there.

"He is certainly someone who is considered a suspect," Sergent Bernie Presha said "We'd like to talk to him and he may be able to tell us stuff that we may not know."

Deepa's parents, who had returned to India after living in America for many years, started worrying when they did not hear from her for several days, which brought the police to the university campus, and then to her home.

Since there were no signs of breaking into the apartment, the police ruled out robbery and started checking out her friends and relatives.

For several days after discovering Deepa's body the detectives were worried that Kamlesh might have been kidnapped or hurt. It was their belief that he was the last person to see her, and her neighbors had seen him driving her red BMW. The car was abandoned near a coffee house a few minutes drive from her home.

Officials suspect that following loud arguments, which were remembered by neighbors in interviews, he killed Deepa on July 11, stuffed her body inside a closet in their two bedroom apartment near the university and fled. Deepa had arrived home about 3 in the morning, and Kamlesh was seen driving off her in BMW two hours later, officials have confirmed. She was killed around that time.

Officials have confirmed that the day after the murder, Kamlesh sold his Toyota and a fax machine to a friend for about $ 1,400 in cash, and requested the friend to take him to the airport, telling him he was flying to Bombay.

Kamlesh, who was dropped off at the British Airways terminal, told his friend he was not going to return. He had returned to Florida from Bombay on July 7 after spending four weeks there. He reportedly told his friend he had a family emergency in Bombay.

EARLIER REPORTS:
Murdered Florida Student's Identity Confirmed
Unanswered Questions In Student's Murder

Next story: Repeat show for Gandhi-Godse

Tell us what you think of this report